Composer Gabriela Lena Frank, who was recently named the California Symphony's Young American Composer in Residence, has resigned the post, the Contra Costa Times reports.

According to the Times, Frank has chosen to accept an opportunity to study in South America. The trip will prevent her from fulfilling her duties with the Walnut Creek ensemble.

The California Symphony's composer-in-residence program, created in 1991, allows the composer to rehearse, revise, and perform a series of new works over three years. Previous participants include Pierre Jalbert and Chris Theofanidis. Frank's first work was to be premiered in May.

Stacey Street, the orchestra's executive director, told the Times that the group would name another composer in residence from the short list it compiled last year.

Born in Berkeley in 1972, Frank studied at Rice University and the University of Michigan. According to the California Symphony, her music "incorporates South American mythology, art, poetry, and folk music into Western classical forms and reflects her Peruvian-Jewish heritage." Her works have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony and Kronos Quartet.